Plastic screen and use



23, 1962 c. DEMKO 3,

PLASTIC SCREEN AND USE Filed 001:. 8, 1959 INVENTOR CHARLES DEMKO 6 FIG. 5 BY fi fid ATTORNEY a, iii

United States Patent Office 3,017,927 Patented Jan. 23, 1962 3,017,927 PLASTIC SCREEN AND USE Charles Demko, 1355 Burkhardt Ave., Akron, Ohio Filed Get. 8, 1959, Ser. No. 845,206 3 Claims. (Cl. 160-271) This invention relates to a plastic screen attached to a roller and adapted to be rolled and unrolled to cover and uncover an aperture such as a window opening, etc.

The difficulty with prior devices of this sort has been the inability to satisfactorily hold the lateral edges of the screen taut over the opening as these edges move up and down near the edges of the opening.

According tothis invention the edges of the screen are stiffened and bent over preferably to a position substantially parallel with the plane of the screen. They might be bent perpendicular to the plane of the screen but generally this will be found objectionable as requiring too much space or as being unsightly. These bentover edges slide in guides and hold the edges of the screen taut as the screen is rolled on to or unrolled from the roller to which it is attached. The edges, although stiff enough to be held in the guides are still sufliciently flexible to be rolled and unrolled on the roller.

It is important that the stiff edges of the screen be about the same thickness as the rest of the screen. They cannot be substantially thicker because this will prevent their being rolled smoothly onto the roller. If the screen is a mesh, the edges may be stiffened b-y filling the edge openings of the mesh with a stiffening plastic. If the screen is a continuous-solid film, either transparent or opaque, each stiffened edge is preferably made separate from the film and then butt-welded to its edge. A stiffened edge may be applied to a mesh screen in the same manner. The weld may be formed by heat and pressure, or a solvent, or an adhesive. Alternatively, the edges of a film screen may be slightly thickened by the union thereto of a narrow, very thin film of stiffener applied to either one or both surfaces of the film as a liquid or solid.

The invention will be further described in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which- FIG. 1 is an elevation of the outside of a wall with a window in it, partly broken away, to show the structure of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged detail of the top of the woven screen of FIGS. 1 and 2 with a substantial portion of it rolled on a roller;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail of an edge of the screen in a guide, on the line 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4A is a similar view without the screen; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged detail of the woven screen with a stiffened edge.

In the drawings, the window frame 1 in the wall 2 may be of any usual construction. Both edges of the window and screen are of identical construction. The screen 5 is a woven mesh screen and may, for example, be made of fiber glass, although other plastics that will withstand the flexing and abrasion incident to employment in the device of this invention may be employed. As best shown in FIG. 5, the edges 6 have been stiffened by being filled with a plastic, preferably a stiffer plastic such as a polystyrene plastic. This plastic may be applied in strip form by heat and pressure, or may be applied as a solution of the plastic in a volatile solvent. The stiffened edges of the plastim may be inch wide and each stiffened edge of the plastic slides in a guide 8. This guide may be of wood, plastic or metal or the like. It includes the vertical slot opening 9 in the plane of the screen 5 and the adjacent opening 10 which, in general,

is parallel to the opening 9, although the surface 12 adjacent the opening 9 may advantageously slant toward it. The surface 12 meets the surface 13 of the opening 9 in a rounded or pointed edge, or in any other suitable fashion. It is best shown in FIG. 4A.

Any means may be employed for flattening the screen out after it leaves the guides. The drawings illustrate the simple expedient of beveling the end of the guide 15 down from its outside edge. Alternatively or additionally, a bar or roller may be located adjacent the face of the screen to fold the edges out flat before they reach the roller 20. A second bar or roller is advantageously located adjacent the other face of the screen, close to the first-mentioned bar or roller, to force the screen against this first-mentioned bar or roller. Any suitable means may be used for flattening out the edges of the screen.

One end of the screen is attached to the roller 20 in any suitable manner (not shown). The stiffened edges 6 of the screen are spread out flat as the screen is rolled flat on to the roller 20. Conversely, as the screen leaves the roller, the edges are folded in so that they are accommodated by the openings through the guides.

There is advantageously a stiffening bar 25 at the lower end of the screen and a hook 26 or other means on it to engage in an eye 27 or other holding means on the sill 28. There is spring means in or adjacent the roller 20 (preferably means such as the ratchet spring means in an ordinary curtain rod) which makes it possible to lower the screen to any one of many desired locations where it is held by the ratchet. To raise the screen it is only necessary to disengage the ratchet and allow the spring to draw the screen up around the roller.

Although the screen is illustrated as being attached to a horizontal roller,'the roller may, of course, be vertical or in any other desired position. A solid film may be used in conjunction with a window sash, to serve as a storm window. An advantage in the use of a rollable film instead of the usual rigid storm window is that it can easily be cleaned on the outer surface as by felt means located across the opening, at the top of the guides, or in any other suitable location. Alternatively, the inner wall above the window may be made openable so that a sponge or the like can easily be applied manually to the outer surface of the film as it is rolled or unrolled on a. roller such as the roller 20.

The description is illustrative, and the invention is covered in the claims which follow.

What I claim is:

1. The combination of a screen in a frame, the screen being flexible with at least one selvedge composed in part of plastic and stiffer than the adjacent screen portion but not substantially thicker than the adjacent screen portion so that when the screen is rolled into a roll the end at which said selvedge is located is not substantially thicker than the balance of the roll, at least one edge of the frame being straight and having a channel defined in said edge of the frame, said channel being comprised of two diversely directed parts, said parts having a common edge along which the parts are joined, with the selvedge in one part and the screen extending out of the other part, the screen being longitudinally movable in the channel.

2. The combination of a screen in a rectangular frame, the screen being flexible with opposite selvedges which are at least in part plastic and stiffer than the portion of the screen between them and not substantially thicker than the portion of the screen between them so that when the screen is rolled into a roll with said selvedges at the ends thereof the roll is of substantially uniform diameter from one end thereof to the other, the opposite sides of the frame each comprising a channel located within the frame, each channel being comprised of two diversely directed parts, said parts having a common edge along which the parts are joined, with one part of each channel closed and the other part open toward the open part of the opposite channel, both open parts lying in substantially the same plane, with the selvedges in the closed parts of the channels and a portion of the screen which lies between the selvedges extending from one open part to the other and held taut by the selvedges in the channels, with the screen extending lengthwise beyond the channels and the selvedges there extending outwardly in line with the portion of the screen between them.

3. The combination of a screen in a rectangular frame, the screen being flexible with opposite selvedges which are at least in part plastic and stiffer than the portion of the screen between them and not substantially thicker than the portion of the screen between them so that when the screen is rolled into a roll with said selvedges at the ends thereof the roll is of substantially uniform diameter from one end thereof to the other, the opposite sides of the frame each comprising a channel located within the frame, each channel being comprised of two diversely directed parts, said parts having a common edge along which the parts are joined, with one part of each channel closed and the other part open toward the open part of the opposite channel, both open parts lying in substantially the same plane, with the selvedges in the closed parts of the channels and a portion of the screen which lies between the selvedges extending from one open part to the other and held taut by the selvedges in the channels, and a roller across the frame and extending substantially from one of said sides thereto to the other, with one end of the screen being attached to the roller and rolled thereon with both edges of the rolled-on portion extending outwardly from the intermediate portion of the screen.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Harris Nov. 26, 1895 Schmiedeskarnp Oct. 18, 1932 Swan Oct. 5, 1937 Swan May 12, 1959 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,01%927 January 23 1962 Charles Demko It is hereby certified that errof appears in the above numbered pat- 1 ent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 1 line 67,, for "plastim" read plastic column 2, line 56, after "having", insert therealong sighed and sealed this 10th day of July 1962o SEAL) Attest DAVID L. LADD Commissioner of Patents ERNEST W SW IDER Attesting Officer 7 if V ,7 W h f 

